1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique in which document data is managed by a document management server.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a sever system has been known which realizes a service referred to as a document management system. The document management system can organize a large amount of images and documents in an office and store them in a database to facilitate a search and management of the images and the documents.
One reason why the above system was introduced is, for example, that in the office in which information is transferred in a paper medium, an amount of the information is increasing and therefore it is troublesome for a user to search and specify desired information among a large amount of the paper media. Further, if the information is printed on the paper medium, it is difficult to share a single document between many users.
Recently, an image processing apparatus which has a function of scanning, reading and computerizing an image on a paper medium, has come to have also a network communication function. As a result, the image processing apparatus can connect to a network such as a local area network (LAN). Accordingly, the image processing apparatus can directly or indirectly scan a document and computerize the scanned document into image data, and transmit the computerized image data to a document management system via the network.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-325146 discusses a technique for registering a scanned document in a designated server.
In the document management system, when computerized document data is registered and stored, a document name, a comment, index information for searching and organizing the document data, and the like can be registered as document property information in association with the document data. Further, the document property information includes an essential input item according to a way of management and use of the document management system in a user environment.
On the other hand, there is a limit in an operability of the image processing apparatus. For example, most of operation panels installed in the apparatus include small displays which can be used as a graphical user interface (GUI). Further, for example, an interface such as a keyboard for a personal computer (PC), which can easily input a character string, is not always connected to the image processing apparatus. Consequently, a user cannot always appropriately input all the values of the essential input items in registering the document data into the document management system from the image processing apparatus when a document is scanned.
Therefore, if the values of the essential input items for the registration of the document data into the document management system cannot be acquired, transmission of the document data from the image processing apparatus to the document management system may fail due to an error at the document management system side. Consequently, document registration may be unsuccessful. Alternatively, the document data is registered as inappropriate document data, and the user cannot acquire the document data through a search.
Therefore, if the document registration cannot be made appropriately, the user is required to perform a cumbersome task that the user transmits the document data again after inputting the essential input items and scanning the document. In some cases, the user may not be aware that the document registration was made inappropriately.
The present invention relates to a technique for preventing incomplete input of the essential input items when document data is registered in the document management unit.